mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
As Mental_floss lists go, this one is pretty short. Normally I’d have 5 or 6 reasons — but now that Amy Pohler is off the show, Tina Fey probably won’t be doing any more Palin impersonations, Maya Rudolph has moved onto greener pastures and Kristen Wiig, while hilarious, can’t carry every sketch, I was hard-pressed to come up with even one. That is, until yesterday — when I heard that my friend Michaela — starting this Saturday — will become SNL’s newest cast member! Which is good news for everyone, not just Michaela (whose dream since childhood has been to be on SNL), because she happens to be uproariously funny.
So who is she? I thought it would be fun to give everyone a sneak peek — she’s been in LA’s Groundlings comedy troupe for several years, and there are some really funny clips of sketches she wrote and stars in floating around, a few of which I’ll share here. She’s also got a recurring role on The New Adventures of Old Christine, in which she plays Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ brother’s girlfriend. (It was only after Michaela was cast that they realized she bore an uncanny resemblance to Julia herself — and made it into a plot point.) She also stars in a short I just directed for Absolut Vodka and Ecogeek.org, which will hopefully hit the interwebs in a few weeks.
Right now the most-watched clip of Michaela is a dead-on impression she does of Arianna Huffington, which is hilarious (and pictured above) but NSFW enough that I can’t just embed it here. When Michaela’s slightly less crazed with moving to New York on five minutes’ notice and being funny on live TV in front of millions two days from now, I hope we’ll be able to interview her here on the blog about what this whirlwind has been like, and perhaps get some fun behind-the-scenes of life at SNL. Until then, enjoy these few glimpses of its newest member!
Don’t!
Michaela shows off her character skills as a hot-blooded Italian.
Open and Open Case
Michaela plays the passed-over lawyer. This one has a few NSFW words in it — but it’s hilarious!
After Dinner Music
Michaela plays the attention hog.
Comments (4)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
Abby Elliott, daughter of actor Chris Elliott, is also joining the cast. She does a great Kirsten Dunst impersonation.
posted by JennB on 11-13-2008 at 1:00 pm
Sounds like we can look forward to an endless stream of skits that center around Arianna Huffington and Kirsten Dunst.
posted by Craig on 11-13-2008 at 1:56 pm
Too bad you can see the genius that is SNL. While your faves are great (Pohler and Rudolph were both underrated while Fey was unbelieveable), the guys have some greatness in them too. I have been a loyal watcher for over 20 years and while the Farrel years were my favorite, I can see the genius in todays crop of youngsters. Todays SNL gets a bad rap, unfortunately, many of the critics don’t even watch the show. They claim it hasn’t been great, but then when you ask them what is wrong with it, they tell you they haven’t seen the show in years. Granted, some of the sketches aren’t excellent, but there is some real talent on that show.
posted by Ian on 11-13-2008 at 2:24 pm
Congrats to Michaela (and Abby)!
posted by Dawn on 11-15-2008 at 8:06 pm